India on Saturday successfully launched its first space mission to the sun, just days after it made history in landing a spacecraft near the Moon's unexplored south pole.
The Aditya-L1 orbiter took off aboard a spacecraft from the country's main space center in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, it will travel around 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth over four months.
The spacecraft includes seven payloads to conduct detailed studies of the sun, including the effect of solar activities on space weather in real time, for example.
If successful, India will join other countries, including Japan and the United States, in studying the sun.
Last month, India became the fourth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon after the United States, the Soviet Union and China. Its feat came just days after Russia failed in a similar mission to land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole.
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